The invention relates generally to visual and/or audio presentation systems, and deals more particularly with dynamic control of the presentation.
For many types of presentations, it is necessary to employ visual and/or audio aids. The visual aids may take the form of slides, images generated on a video display monitor, images generated by a video projector, or transparencies or LCD images which are displayed with an overhead projector. Audio "clips" can be stored on disk and synchronized with the slides, transparencies or images. There are several previously known systems for controlling the visual and/or audio presentations. A well known slide carousel can be filled with slides, displayed on a screen with a projector, and incrementally advanced or regressed at any time with a manual switch. An IBM Storyboard program can define a list and sequence of video images and display them. The Storyboard program can automatically advance from image to image in the sequence according to time intervals written in the program or can wait for a manual cue from the operator to advance. The Storyboard program also permits manually controlled incremental advances in the sequence or regress back to the last full image in the sequence. An IBM AVC program is similar to the Storyboard program except cannot be regressed dynamically.
While these prior art systems provide some dynamic control on the presentation by permitting incremental advances or regressions, the operator may require additional dynamic control to suit the immediate audience, respond to questions and add material deemed appropriate during the presentation.
A general object of the present invention is to provide a visual and/or audio presentation system which provides greater dynamic control than the aforesaid prior art.